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18. 'Furlough' and 'parole' are two distinct terms now being used in the Jail Manuals or laws relating to temporary release of prisoners. These two terms have acquired different meanings in the statute with varied results. Dictionary meanings, therefore, are not quite helpful.

19. 'Parole' is defined in Black's Law Dictionary as "a conditional release of a prisoner, generally under supervision of a parole officer, who has served part of the term for which he was sentenced to prison". Parole relates to executive action. Historically 'parole' is a concept known to military law and denotes release of a prisoner of war on promise to return. Parole has become an integral part of the English and American systems of criminal justice intertwined with the evolution of changing attitudes of the society towards crime and criminals. As a consequence of the introduction of parole into their penal system, all fixed-term sentences of imprisonment of above 18 months are subject to release on licence, that is, parole is granted after a third of the period of sentence has been served. In those countries, parole is taken as an act of grace and not as a matter of right and the convict prisoner may be released on condition that he abides by the promise. It is a provisional release from confinement but is deemed to be a part of the imprisonment. Release on parole is a wing of the reformative process and is expected to provide opportunity to the prisoner to transform himself into a useful citizen. Parole is thus a grant of partial liberty or lessening of restrictions on a convict prisoner, but release on parole does not change the status of the prisoner.

20. However, the concept of parole under the English law, the American law and the Indian law is quite different. Under the English Law, parole is granted to a convict who has undergone major part of his sentence. It is a reformative process on account of the changing attitude towards crime and criminals. Parole under those systems is a provisional release from jail but it is deemed to be part of the imprisonment. A convict is supposed to maintain good behaviour during this period and not abuse the liberty granted to him in any manner, otherwise he would be called back to serve out the remaining part of his imprisonment. However, under the Indian system a convict can be released on Parole only in case of the contingencies mentioned in Rule 19. It is a temporary release granted on account of contingency and after the period of parole is over the convict has to report back to prison to undergo the remaining part of his sentence. Thus, though the concept of Parole differs under the Indian system and other systems, one similarity is that Parole does not amount to suspension of sentence and the person is deemed to be undergoing imprisonment during the period that he is on parole.